Category Archives: show

The radio show drama, The Shadow – The Deathhouse Rescue, which premiered on September 26, 1937, starred Orson Welles as Lamont Cranston, better known as The Shadow, and Agnes Moorhead as Margot Lane, Cranston’s constant companion and sidekick. (2)

The 1930s was a time when people needed to escape from reality because of the devastating effects of the Great Depression and the brutal antics Hitler was implementing in Germany and Europe. Escapism was the rule in all of the media including dime novels like The Shadow – Death from Nowhere (1) above left, movies and radio shows like The Shadow.

The Shadow character was described as a man with a genius level intellect who was in peak physical condition. He was a master detective, skilled marksman, martial artist, and a master of disguise and stealth. (2)

In this episode Cranston is tasked with clearing Paul Gordon’s name and rescuing him from his date with the electric chair. Can the Shadow accomplish the near impossible? I’m sure you already know the answer, but it is still fun to listen to him while he does it.

The Shadow always begins with “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows.” Give a listen.

Naturally the good guy always wins. This is escapism after all, and the bad guys winning would be most depressing. The Shadow always ends with “The weed of crime bears bitter fruit. Crime does not pay… The Shadow knows!” (2) Thank you, Shadow. I feel better already.

It has been a long time between Japanese game show posts, so it is back to the Orient we travel to see what is happening with Japan’s clever game show industry. In our first vid our heroes take advantage of age enhancing makeup to make them look like old men, which, of course, will excuse some behavior that we might not otherwise tolerate from a younger person.

The first video is my favorite, and in it these clever characters pull some pretty funny shenanigans. Have a look:

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The second video is another Japanese game show vid that is just total silliness. The object is for the contestants to catch the marshmallow in their mouths, but they are restrained by a large rubber band held over their faces.

These are three of my very favorite blonde videos. We have posted the first one before, but it is special enough to warrant posting again. A beautiful, young blonde is anxious to make her mark in show business. In her own words, she “was born to do this.”

But enough talk because a video is worth more than a thousand words. Give a look:

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Now, wasn’t that special?

*****

Johnny Carson was king of the late night talk shows for about 30 years. Many tried to dethrone him including Joey Bishop, Dick Cavett, Merv Griffin, and quite a few others.

But he reigned supreme, and one of the reasons was beautiful Carol Wayne, who was on his show 101 times. The following video is Carol’s last appearance on The Tonight Show because she passed away suddenly not long after this interview. Carol fit the dumb blonde stereotype perfectly, and, of course, Johnny knew exactly how to play it for the funniest effect.

*****

Well, we have saved the best for last. This video is from the Newlywed Game TV series which began its long run in 1966. The blonde in the video is a classic. She is the piece de resistance when it comes to dumb blondes.

Despite her lack of intellect, she is very cute and surprisingly appealing. If there was a hall of fame for dumb blonde videos, this one would be there right at the top. Enough talk. Watch and smile.

Jay Leno, host of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and Ellen DeGeneres, host of Ellen, a daytime talk show, are both in hot water over the Writers’ Guild of America strike.

Leno has chosen to honor the strikers’ picket lines and has not returned to work at his show since the strike began on Monday, November 5th. NBC has been running reruns since then, as has the Late Show with David Letterman.

“We want to protect the staff, who have been loyal to this show for decades, in the same way that Johnny Carson reluctantly returned without his writers in 1988,” said Vickers. The 1988 strike lasted 22 weeks.

But the staff is not the only thing NBC wants to protect. Prior to the strike, the Tonight Show beat Letterman in the ratings on a regular basis, earning NBC about $50 million per year in the process.

Since the strike began, however, the Letterman show has siphoned off about 750,000 homes and has beat Tonight in the ratings twice this week.

Because NBC is concerned about losing even more viewers, it has been reportedly pressuring Leno to cross the picket lines.

Vickers has admitted that NBC is even considering returning to production without Leno, using a guest host instead.Ellen DeGeneres, on the other hand, has been crossing the picket lines to film her syndicated talk show since one day after the strike began. DeGeneres picketed with the strikers the first day, but went back to work after that.

The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), has criticized DeGeneres for going back to work instead of supporting the strikers.

The WGAE, in a press release, claimed that DeGeneres was not supporting her writers and was violating strike rules.

WGAE said, “Ellen has…been performing comedy on her show. Even if Ellen is writing those segments herself, since those segments would normally be written by the writers on strike, she’s performing ‘struck work’. Ellen is violating the strike rules that were clearly explained to all of the comedy/variety shows.”

Ellen’s producer, Telepictures Productions, countered, “as a syndicated show, the individual stations control when the show airs. If Telepictures does not deliver original episodes of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, the stations can move the show out of its time periods, or ultimately hold the company in breach of contract.

“Telepictures provides first run programming to stations they don’t control. The network controls their own schedule and programming with the late night shows as Leno, Conan, Kimmel etc.”

If the strike continues, you can rest assured that the rhetoric will only heat up.

Tina Fey, star of 30 Rock, was among the celebrities seen Tuesday and Wednesday manning the picket lines along with other members of the Writers Guild of America, which is striking against the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers.

The writers are striking for a share of the residuals generated by the Internet, DVDs and other media platforms.

After her stint at picketing, Fey reported for work Tuesday to resume filming her acting scenes for 30 Rock.

Also picketing in front of NBC’s New York headquarters at Rockefeller Center was Will Forte, a writer and a six season member of the cast of Saturday Night Live. Said Forte, “It’s pretty well-known that writers are often treated like second-class citizens. There’s not a whole lot of glory in it.”

The video is below an excerpt from “30 Rock.”

“Without writers, there would be no shows, no movies,” continued Forte, who frequently plays George Bush in SNL skits. “These things are your babies. You work really hard on them, and you have a sense of ownership with them. So there’s nothing wrong with wanting a fair deal.”

The late night talk shows, such as the Late Show with David Letterman and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, are already airing reruns because of the writers’ strike. The Washington Post has reported that the Leno show gave 70-100 of the staff their two week notice that they will be without employment as of November 19th if the strike continues.

Since no talks between the Guild and the producers are scheduled, more layoffs seem inevitable.

Now that the strike is a reality, the TV networks are implementing their contingency programming, including more reality shows. CBS is ready to bring out the winter version of Big Brother, a summer reality show winner.

Plan on many more unscripted shows like reality and game shows along with the anticipated airing of reruns if the strike continues for any length of time.

Ellen DeGeneres is living proof that you do not need to be intelligent to have your own talk show. In case you do not watch the news, Ellen had a public meltdown on her talk show on Tuesday about a dog.

She was crying, even bawling, about how she and her hairdresser’s daughter were being punished because she violated the terms of her adoption agreement with a pet rescue shelter. Ellen gave the dog away to her hairdresser instead of returning the dog to the agency as she had promised and agreed to do if the adoption did not work out.

When the agency enforced the terms of the adoption agreement by removing the dog from its new home, Ellen did not hire an attorney to challenge the agreement that she had willingly signed. Instead she had the meltdown on her show taking up at least 10-15 minutes of the show complaining about how unfairly she was being treated.

The patrons of McCafferty’s Pub have decided to provide you with the video of Ellen’s dramatic tirade so you will be able to judge for yourself.

Instead of trying to work the problem out with the agency like the rest of us would be forced to do, Ellen tried to use the power of her show to force the pet agency to back down. She tried to publicly embarrass the owners of the agency.

What she accomplished, however, was a lot worse. The owners of the agency have been deluged with hate mail and even death threats. Ellen may very well have ruined the business of what is probably a charitable pet agency that was doing some good in its community.

Ellen either did not bother to think or did not care what her actions might do to the agency. All Ellen wanted was to get her way, and apparently she did not care who got hurt in the process.

Ellen gets McCafferty‘s putz of the month award for acting even worse than Britney Spears has been acting. All Britney has been doing is expose herself on occasion to America. Ellen “The Putz” DeGeneres seems to think that she can do whatever she wants because she is a celebrity, and deliberately may have ruined someone’s business simply because she could.

If it is good enough for Perez Hilton, writing on photos is good enough for us too. Boycott The Putz.

Ellen DeGeneres had an emotional public meltdown on her talk show over giving away her dog, Iggy, to her hairdresser. Ellen appeared on her talk show crying about the issue because she apparently gave the dog away illegally.Ellen and her partner, actress Portia De Rossi, adopted Iggy on September 20th from Mutts and Moms, a pet rescue agency. Her adoption agreement required her to return the dog to the agency if she did not want to keep it. Instead, when Iggy did not get along with Ellen’s cats, she violated her agreement with the pet agency when she gave the dog away.

After the agency enforced its requirement to return the dog to the agency, taking the dog back from the hairdresser and her children, Ellen’s emotional crying fit on her talk show put public pressure on the pet agency to relent in its actions.